It is common to make electrical boxes in differing sizes to accommodate varying numbers and sizes of electrical components, such as electrical outlets, switches, etc that are installed in the electrical boxes. This multiplicity of sizes creates manufacturing and inventory problems for the fabricator, distributors, retailers and buildings. Gangable electrical boxes have been created to couple a plurality of electrical boxes together to accommodate a growing number of electrical components that must be placed adjacent to each other in the wall.
Electrical boxes are typically secured to a building's wall stud by means of a nail or screw attachment that is incorporated in the electrical box design. Present electrical boxes have a nail attachment device so that the box can be mounted to the side face of the wall stud or a screw attachment device so that the box can be mounted to the front face of the stud, but such boxes do not enable both types of installations.
What has also been described in existing gangable electrical boxes is an electrical box with a frangible side wall that can be removed when an adjacent electrical box is ganged to the electrical box thereby providing for lateral access between the interiors of the ganged boxes. A drawback to such an electrical box is that the entire side wall is removed thereby leaving the ganged boxes without extra structural support for rigidity and without extra structural support to prevent twisting of the ganged boxes when the electrical components are installed.
In addition, present electrical boxes are not truly hermaphroditic to provide for ease of installation and insertion and removal of side walls, such as that shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,255 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,255 C1, each entitled “Laterally Expandable Modular Electrical Box.”
Typically, in new construction, contractors must order a multitude of differently sized electrical boxes to be able to select the required size as needed. Likewise, fabricators, distributors and retailers must be able to supply all of the sizes that may be required in any particular construction project. This results in complexity in the part ordering and installation process, while requiring manufacturers to track and produce a number of parts and the associated catalogue numbers or stock keeping units.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a single electrical box configuration that is easily gangable, hermaphroditic, that maintains full structural integrity when a frangible portion of a separating wall is removed, that has added rigidity and robustness, and has a minimum of stock keeping units.